Year Two, Letter Five

HEY EVERYONE!!!

sorry for the delay! we started using email and then we had to leave because the lan house decided that it would stop working and all the computers went out. but let´s go.

alright so this week was difficult, but productive in some ways.

it has been raining nonstop since friday night/saturday morning. so that was kinda annoying. we had a bunch of people ready to go to church, and they didn´t go because of the rain. i can´t handle that excuse. but we had a couple girls - Lillian and Jennifer - that went with us. that was cool. Lillian is a great investigator. She has some great questions and she is a lot more mature.

elder fernandes is a lot different. we don´t laugh nearly as much as miller and i. actually, we rarely laugh. ummm we had a conversation a few nights ago that really hit me the wrong way.
he flat out told me that he is a missionary that just worries about numbers. whether or not a person stays strong in the church isn´t his priority. he just wants to have a ton of numbers and that is the only concern he has. he wants to baptize anyone...whether or not they are ready to be baptized. so i kinda burned him a little bit...not too harshly or anything. but i will NOT be a numbers missionary. that isn´t me.

but fernandes is currently in Marília for a conference so i am just staying with elders loftus and almeida. we are going to have so much work to do with our investigators when he gets back. josé roberto is still doing well and sérgio, but they have zero support from the branch here. the branch president was trying to tell us what we were allowed to do and stuff and i basically just said that we have the priesthood keys to teach and baptize the people and that the branch was responsible for retaining the people. he doesn´t like missionaries because of certain missionaries that came through here.

but whatever. we just work...and work...and work. and that is what we gotta do. if people don´t like us, that is their problem. we have some good people that we are teaching, but i hope that they will still be interested after a delay of not teaching them. that is the problem with not being able to go there and teach frequently...the enemy is always working. just pray that our investigators will stay interested!

ummmm what other updates do i have...

congratulations on the successful baptism!!! scott springer will be forever grateful for the love and help that you are giving him. and his family, as well, will never forget it.

i am SO excited for conference. I am psyched. but we won´t be allowed to watch the priesthood session. there is the 9:00 to 11:00 transmission on saturday night, so we can´t watch. and then the re-transmission is at 6:00 AM on sunday, so we can´t watch that one either. but i will watch the other sessions...i hope.

the office looks AMAZING! you guys did an amazing job.

i hope Wendy is doing okay. is Bob still alive? is he in the hospital still? that is a really rough situation. i hope she is okay.

my nephew looks excellent. is his cold better? i wonder if his cheeks can get any bigger? do you think it is possible? i bet i was chubbier than him when i was a baby!

i hope that sports start getting more interesting. hey dad, i hope you beat everyone in the catholic golf tournament again. that would be excellent.

ummm i was thinking...if it would be possible to send a package soonish, i have a few requests. good, quality toothbrushes because a quality toothbrush here is way expensive. i hate import taxes. and then one of those buzzers that blake got after the mission with the various attachments. that would be splendid if it were possible.

alright well i saved my big time trunky comment until the very end.
here it goes....

you guys will never again receive an email from me as a missionary in the month of september. ever.

i was going to say this at the end of august...but i don´t know if i will still be here in august or not. i might have to come home early for school and i haven´t really thought a lot about that, so i don´t know what will happen there. so i decided that i would say it at the end of september :) don´t get too trunky!!

i love you guys and i hope that you guys avoid the cold :) keep being awesome like always. i miss you guys and love you guys :) untillll next week. peace. tchau

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Four

hi there.

maybe you guys are getting as sick of this as i am....but more changes. this last transfer ended on sunday, and once again, i don´t even have time to get used to a comp. elder miller was transferred. i am going on to my 10th companion now. everyone says that our mission is really weird about transfers. rather than stay with a comp for a couple transfers, the president just makes a ton of changes. a few returned missionaries in our district just said that when they were on their missions, they would stay for at least a couple transfers with the same comp in the same area. it just doesn´t make a lot of sense...i mean you barely have time to get used to one form of teaching with one comp, and then when you can actually start working on improving and mastering, you have to get a different comp. elder miller and i were way good friends and this transfer flew by so dang quick...but now i have to get one more comp...

his name is elder fernandes. he is from Amapá and he is 25. he was elder yuma´s comp. yuma told me a lot of stories about their time as comps. from what i have heard, he is quite immature and he complains about like...everything. but i better not judge. i gotta give the kid a chance. i really just want to have a fun transfer and work. i guess i gotta just trust in God as always.

ummm i wish i was there to see my nephew. i am glad you are recovering morgan. i am sure you are gunna be an awesome mom :) and when he gets all fussy and stuff, just remember...umm...it will only last for a few years? just keep truckin :)

it sounds like this Scott Springer guy is pretty cool. So his whole family are members, but he wasn´t baptized yet? that is great that he is finally making that choice. how are you two (Dad and Mom) liking the mission callings?? are the two sisters for our entire stake? or just our ward? we don´t have any help whatsoever for our missionary work. our ward mission leader hasn´t showed up for the last 2 weeks for our meeting and when i talk to him about it he just whines and complains that he is too busy. but i guess we gotta just keep fighting and teaching the people here. when it comes down to it, the most important thing we can do is teach people about Christ. i guess we gotta just endure and be happy in our moments of difficulty so that we can grow and become stronger. i wish i was working with you guys and our ward´s mission crew haha. who teaches the gospel principles class?

as for our investigators:

José Roberto: he didn´t get baptized. i guess he was too busy this last week and never had time to remember the 3 appointments that we had with him. but he wants to get baptized this saturday. the problem?
we have to allow some time to make sure he won´t fall back into old habits. but he broke up with rosa (the member from our branch) and she was way pissed because of that. so i don´t know how this will work out in our branch....

Sérgio: this is Sandra´s boyfriend. she is also a member. they aren´t living together. but we still had to be careful teaching the law of chastity. he has gone to church several times and i believe that i will have to set up an appointment with him tonight or tomorrow and i think we will challenge him to be baptized next saturday. he lives outside city limits, so it is tough to teach him. but he is a very quiet, chill guy.

Cambucí Crew: Jonathan (Light), Alex, and Leandro didn´t go to church.
the first two have more potential. we gotta get them to keep going to church and we gotta get them to build some friendship in the branch...with all of the members that are so eager to...not help.but we have some cool young men here who will help us out. I don´t know how well elder fernandes will mesh with them though. me and elder miller just fit together and worked really well together and they thought we were really cool missionaries but, more importantly, friends. but fernandes seems a little timid...or nerdy. lol. but he is my new comp. i gotta learn to love him. maybe he has a special something that these kids need to
see or learn and that is why he is here?

Hélio and Nalva: They still need to get married. And they need to keep the word of wisdom. And we just received some crazy info...Hélio had an interesting job choice about 14 years ago. A job choice that forced him to leave the state where he used to live for fear of death. He used to be a hitman. SO ummm....we have got a LONG road before their baptism. president tavares will have to approve an interview and he will have to do it personally. but that is a ways away.

Roberta´s Family: we will see what to do there. they didn´t go to church.
so now we will have to see.

Now, we just have to start working more and more to find new investigators and such. i am gunna have to take control and get our references organized and just start doing what i was doing in Marília.
And we are gunna have to pray a lot.

did you guys finish the office? is it cool?

hey blake...what is the email address that you are sending your letters to? because i don´t know if i am getting all of them that you are sending.

everyone can go on a scripture hunt this week. read matthew 5:48 and then read 3 Nephi 12:48 and 27:27 and tell me how that is another testimony that the book of mormon is true. you can look at the example of Christ´s baptism in Matthew as well and compare it to 2 Nephi 31: 3
- 9 to get a hint. whoever gets it right will win a high five via internet.

so i guess that is all i have for interesting stuff. ummm thanks everyone for your support. i know i don´t say it enough...but you guys are so important to me. thank you for everything and for your examples. i love you guys! keep seeking a deeper, more important relationship with Christ in your lives. till next week. TCHAUZÃO!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Three

I am an uncle!!!!!!!! And yes, i know that you all received new

titles, as well. soooo congratulations to you guys, too. BUT I AM AN

UNCLE!!! i feel pretty left out right about now. butttt

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!! jackson scott...9 lbs and 13 oz!! how

tight. sorry big guy, but i was still bigger (you can show him this

email when he learns to read). but that is great that morgan still

loves her first child. i mean it might have hurt a tid bit, but it was

worth it, right? lol but seriously...congrats. i am so happy that he

came early. now moe doesn´t have suffer so much :) i loved the

pictures. every one seems to have these really surprised faces like,

"hey...so you are the reason that morgan has been hurting so much

lately." i am way happy for you guys. it is gunna be pretty exciting

to be PARENTS!!!! and more exciting to be an uncle. because i won´t be

changing the diapers ;)

soooo um we got some more good news for this week. Jonathan "Light"

went to church again this last sunday and we brought one of his

friends, Alex. butttt even though they are liking everything, one of

their friends is definitely getting in the way. Leandro (who we were

teaching, as well) was causing some problems and saying that Jonathan

shouldn´t be baptized. definitely annoying. so we are just focusing on

getting him to read the book of mormon and pray so that he doesn´t

need to have any doubts. there is a lot of work ahead, but we

are...working on it.

we are also getting Roberto prepared for baptism. it could be this

saturday, but it isn´t for sure. it might delay a little more. we will

see. Hélio and Nalva are great. Hélio has to travel a lot for work

though. and now he stays outside the city for like 5 days straight.

and then comes back for only one day. so it is tough. they gotta get

married, too :(

ummmm we are also teaching a girl and her cousin. their names are

Graziele and Barbara. they went to church and loved it. but then some

lady from another branch starting asking a bunch of questions about

where they live and was like, "Hey, you live in our branch boundaries,

so you have to come with me right now to the other church." So

Graziele and Barbara got all upset because they already liked all the

girls in young women and relief society and they were really friendly,

so they didn´t wanna leave. they live right on our boundary lines as

missionaries, so it doesn´t matter about the branch boundaries to us.

we just wanna help them follow the gospel, but everyone else just

freaks out about location and numbers in their chapels and stuff. they

need to worry about helping these two girls like the church and

understand it. but no. they just complain. way stupid. but they are

way cool.

we also have this lady in our ward named Roberta. she is SO tight. she

took us to visit two of her aunts and one of her nieces yesterday and

they all wanna be baptized, they just have to make some changes in

their lives. it was crazy though, because roberta said that these

family members have had so many opportunities and the missionaries

have already tried to teach, but her family didn´t want anything to do

with anything. now, they are listening to us and they wanna start

following the gospel. she said that it is a miracle because she

doesn´t know why this sudden change happened. maybe that is just one

more reason that i am here. maybe it was because of this moment as

well? i dunno. but we will get working on it.

ummmm we played soccer this morning. i am actually getting lots

better. but my right shin hurts. but it was fun. i need to get a

little more practice in. and when we play, we play with guys our age

or right around that age. the neighborhood soccer team that we are

teaching (we call them the Cambucí Crew) are all between 16 and 22. it

is really fun to play with them. we set up a game with them today. we

are gunna play soccer, get some pizza, and then teach them all. the

group is: Jonathan (Light), Raphael, Leandro, Alex, Vinicius (deaf and

mute), and the occasional random friend of theirs. It is gunna be fun.

but we can only play with them on p-day, or at the friday night church

activity if they go, or randomly for a couple minutes in the street

haha

sooooo i don´t know what else i have to say. nothing as exciting as,

"I AM AN UNCLE!" yeah, it still has a cool sound to it. thanks for

giving me this opportunity morgan and stuart. :) ummmm things are

good. i am healthy. me and elder miller are still tight. is it weird

if i feel like Brazil is my home? i mean obviously it isn´t my REAL

home. but it feels like my home. it is hard for me to imagine what my

life would be like if i weren´t a missionary. sorry. i am just

rambling now. i love you guys!!!! i miss you a ton (including

little...or big...Jackson Scott). morgan...keep recovering. :)

love you all and tchau!!

elder scott ghormley

P.S. Dad! how is the new calling going?? i bet you are a kick butt LMA

(líder da missão da ala) WARD MISSION LEADER! ours doesn´t help at

all. he got back from the mish a while ago and he just focuses on

girls. literally. and he has a strange giggle. but let me know how

things are going with the calling!!!

Year Two, Letter Two

hiiiii everybody.

what is up? so this week has been okay. i am doing good. my feet seem
to be getting better. i am walking. and i played soccer. and actually
did quite well. we played with a bunch of kids that actually play. and
i scored 3 times. yeah. what up brazil?!

we played because we took a bunch of investigators to play with us. we
are teaching a neighborhood team. seriously. Jonathan, Leandro, Alex,
Rafael, and another Jonathan. They all play soccer together and we
started teaching Leandro and Jonathan (Light) and now we are teaching
all of them. Jonathan went to church on his own this last Sunday. his
mom and sister couldn´t. but they are gunna go next week. it has been
pretty cool to teach all of these kids.

we also found a family that is absolutely amazing. their names are
Hélio and Nalva. their son and his girlfriend are investigators in
another branch in Prudente. and they are getting married so they can
be baptized. they invited us all over last night for a churrasco.
their names are Jorgeness and Marcele. they have been helping with
Hélio and Nalva. unfortunately, Hélio and Nalva need to get married,
too. they have been together for 29 years, but aren´t married. they
wanna get baptized, too. but they need to get married and keep the
word of wisdom. but jorgeness asked me to give Hélio a blessing to
help him understand the importance of all of this and Hélio told us
yesterday that they are planning on following the gospel. he said that
the minute we left, two people showed up at their gate. one was from a
catholic church and the other was from some evangelical church. they
started saying so much crap about us and lying and stuff. kinda funny
how the enemy never sleeps. the second we leave, he is attacking. but
Hélio just looked at these two people and said, "you follow what you
want to follow. i will follow the truth." and then he just pointed at
the book of mormon. oh yeah! take it! i gave him a metaphorical (or
hypothetical) fist pound for that. jorgeness also asked me to give his
son a blessing for health. so it has been cool to see the priesthood
working in this family.

we also got a wonderful piece of news. we were eating lunch at a
sister´s house that lives with her boyfriend but they aren´t married
either. so we went to eat lunch and she just looked at us and said, "
I have some excellent news for you two! Roberto wants to be baptized!"
so we were way psyched but still thinking, "Great...so when is the
wedding date??" and then she said that he had moved out and that they
weren´t living together anymore! so we are teaching him and he is set
to have a baptism date on the 18th!!! bombbbb.com. who wants to give
me a virtual high five and a chest bump??

ummmm so i don´t know what to really say. we had rain for the first
time in 2 months here. it rained for like 10 minutes yesterday
morning. and it was also independence day in brazil yesterday. so
there were parades and stuff going all through the center of the city.
that was splendid.

sorry. it seems like nothing very interesting is going on in my life
to share with you guys. we are working. we are kinda looking for more
ways to involve the investigators with fun stuff that involve
principles of the gospel. mainly the younger ones (the rapazes).

dad you are the gospel principles teacher and the ward mission
leader?! that is so tight! i am the gospel principles teacher, too!
and a full time missionary! we would be pretty good friends i bet.and
congrats on the golfing. i will have to go to a chiropractor before
doing anything with golf lol.

R. Dr. Gurgel, 226
Pres. Prudente - São Paulo, 19015-140

that is our apartment, dad. and mom...the roof is sturdy. there is a
bunch of tile and stuff up there and there is like this altar looking
thing that we used for our burn party. speaking of burning...yes, this
city is an oven. it has cooled off for a couple days. but overall, it
is hot. everyone says that summer is ridiculous and that you fry here.
i am not psyched for that. and congrats on the sunday school calling.
just show them who is boss. that is the key. that is why blake and i
were always such angels, right? ....right??

moe!!!! you are gunna have a baby any day now! i am so excited for you
and stu. and yes, i knew that you have to use special detergent for
baby clothes. how is it that i knew that?? that is wonderful to me.
that means i will be not only a great uncle, but a great father. my
wife will love me. and i think i need to have some cool pictures sent
to me from the new professional photographer. :) my pictures are all
nuts. i should probably sent some home.

well that is basically what i got for ya this week. i am missing you
guys a lot lately...but i think that is what it is supposed to be
like. it is to teach you how much you need your family. and yeah, i
need you guys :) i love you all. until next week...have an AWESOME
week!!!!

tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter One

HEY! what is up everyone?? so let´s get started with the second year of emails.

IT IS SEPTEMBER. talk about crazy. time works in crazy ways on the
mission. i mean it seems to go slow and fast and then august is
suddenly over and we are in september. so let´s see what happened this
week...

scripture first! Moroni 10: 32 - 33

um so let´s see. the burn fest was spectacular. we had a burn party on
top of our apartment. i am sure that would be illegal in the States.
but we are in Brazil. but i fried a shirt that was pretty worn. the
pictures are goood. elder almeida and elder miller recently hit a year
and 6 months, so they burned a pair of pants, as well. and a while ago
elder miller wrote off his girlfriend and now we found out that she
got married. so he burned all the letters and stuff that he got from
her. meaning like, 40 or 45 letters. as you can imagine, it was a
great bonding moment watching all of our stuff burn. we even gave each
other "high fives" afterwards.

oh and i kinda took elder miller and myself out to celebrate on a day
that we didn´t have lunch with a member :) we went to this
churrascaria called Guaiba. wow. AMAZING. dad, at my next birthday ask
me about the best meal i have eaten in the last year. it was here. i
used my credit card just to keep you advised. but wow. i have been to
other churrascarias, but this one was different. you could call one of
the guys walking around with the meats and just ask if they had a
certain type of meat. i did this several times. the guy looked around,
and if there was someone walking around with that cut of meat, he
would call him over. and if there wasn´t someone who had that meat
already, he would go back to the grill and get it and bring it
directly to me. i almost felt really important. if i was to think of a
comparison for it, i would have felt like the friend of some really
rich, powerful guy. but yeah...that was the celebration for the one
year and the late celebration for my birthday.

and one more lunch story. we ate lunch with a lady from another branch
with the other elders. she went to the united states and lived there
for 20 years and studied at LDS business college. so she is fluent in
english. she met and married a guy named...Guy. she met him there and
4 years ago they moved back to Brazil. but it was hilarious. Guy is
from Idaho...and he is VERY american. he worked with a lumber company
in the states and he is loaded, so he has an incredibly americanized
house. he imported all of the appliances from the states, and somehow
got away without a single import fee. luckyyyy. but he had like....a
dryer WITH his washer. and a toaster. and a refrigerator that has the
ice/water ejector IN the door. like...you can grab a cup, click that
button, and you can have a refreshing glass of water, all within a
convenient 15 seconds. he had a table-top stove. they had one of those
hooks where you can conveniently hang a bunch of bananas and stuff.
and they had a pool! and a grill! but yeah, i was amazed. we prayed
and talked in english, because Guy doesn´t speak portuguese yet. he
sounds like a greenie american coming into the field for the first
week. i never realized how difficult it is to pray in english. but
lunch was delish.

alright so let´s move on to the more "serious" stuff. we are teaching
some great people. first off, Arthur is very difficult. we taught him
everything, but he is so dang lazy and doesn´t wake up to go to
church. and his mom doesn´t like us. we call him to remind him or
something and she doesn´t give him the message. or when we want to
teach him, she just says that he has chores and that he is in trouble.
she is way annoying. mas...fazer o que?? we are teaching some other
really cool people though. there is one member who is dating a
non-member. his name is sérgio. he is 25. he is way timid, but he went
to church twice already. he is alright, but it is hard to teach him,
because he lives outside the city limits in a farm area. so when he
comes to his girlfriend´s house, we can teach him. we are also
teaching a few kids who have crushes on the young women haha! one is
leandro. he is actually way cool. he is 18. but he came to church when
we weren´t expecting it at all. he is progressing a lot actually. and
we are also teaching a family who lost the husband/father a year ago.
The wife is Luzia, the son is Jonathas "Light," and the daughter is
Bruna. they are way cool. they said that they will prepare to be
baptized on the 18th. they are a special family. we are also teaching
some other great people, but these are the ones that come to mind
right now. we are working. and it is SO hot.

did i mention that this city is just all uphills and downhills?? no?
oh. THIS CITY IS JUST HILLS! ridiculous. and now it is getting way
hotter here. Spring is supposed to start on september 23rd. but summer
already started. and we said peace out to winter like 2 weeks ago.
everyone says that this city in summer is worse than hell. they tell
me that foz do iguaçu was a nice preparation, but it will be worse.
HOW?? foz is the hottest city in southern brazil!!! but whatev. i am
cool.

my nails are getting better?? i think. i mean, it hurts sometimes but
i haven´t lost any proselyting time because of the nails yet. even
before i had them treated, i just kept working. that is probably why
they got so bad. but they seem to be okay now.

morgan...about this whole baby thing. i think you should just start
poking him a lot. maybe it will annoy him and he will just come out so
that he can start crying and screaming and keeping you awake at night.
:) i believe that mom was just too nice to me, so i preferred to stay.
you should try it out. :) and how was the take at the baby shower??
are you gunna be taking a lot of stuff to the exchange counter?? lol
and i am glad that stuart is liking ASU. i mean it is my school. so it
is obviously the better choice. :) oh and stuart...i love you...but
your fantasy football team vai perder.

dad and mom...I CAN`T BELIEVE TYSON IS GOING TO MOSCOW!!!! that is so
amazing. him and jack will be a lot closer then i thought. i wonder if
they will be able to understand one another language-wise. and Laura
is going to Cambodia?? that is amazing. congrats to both of them! i
would ask you to tell them that for me, but i don´t know if that will
be possible with the ward divisons. which i am very sad about by the
way. citrus heights no longer exists?? so what young men basketball
team will destroy everyone else now?? and now so many cool families
are gone! yeah. sad day. Dad, i am very jealous that you will be
playing at Pine Canyon. definitely. but...i am preaching the gospel.
yeah! i know you are jealous. the city here is different for sure. the
people aren´t so friendly. or maybe i still left a part of me back in
palmital. because i didn´t want to leave at all. maybe it is just
because a part of me wants to go back that i haven´t seen the full
potential that pres prudente has. we are working, but the branch
doesn´t help at all. they actually complained a lot about
missionaries. i haven´t seen that so much since i got here, but it is
obivous that they don´t really involve themselves in the missionary
work. but what can ya do? work. and try and gain their trust. and yes,
dad, i remember what STWTLAPO means :) and i work on that every day.

lauren...keep your chin up and keep working :) just do your part.
everyone complains and everyone tries to use some other person as a
scape goat. but just do what you know is right and work like you
always do - THE RIGHT WAY :) if cassie wants to complain, just tell
her that your little brother in Brazil sends her a swift kick in the
butt. and as for halloween...i don´t know what you should be. what do
you think i should be??

well. i hope that was enough updating. this email is long. and i gotta
go. i love you all. i am glad that everyone is gooood. and healthy. i
hope that you all are LOVING the heat. because i am definitely feelin
it here. we are gunna go play volleyball. i love you guys! have an
awesomely spectacular week! peace!

tchau!

elder scott ghormley